So I had my youngest baby a while back, and while I lost a whopping 40 pounds while pregnant with my oldest (hello, hyperemesis gravidarum!), I've gained with all the others, including the last one. In fact, since my oldest, elementary-age child was born, I've gained around 50 pounds through multiple pregnancies, including several miscarriages. But yesterday I received a call from my doctor notifying me that my cholesterol is "slightly elevated." High cholesterol runs in my family, but I have babies, and I really want to be here when they are grown--and I'm an older mama in my lower 40's. So the time has come to lose some weight. I suggested returning to my high school and college weight of 140 pounds because, with my height, I'm pretty skinny at that number. My doctor, bless her, suggested 180 instead, at least for now.
As of this morning, that means I have to lose 39 pounds.
Daunting. Incredibly daunting.
Inspired by this article, I'm taking baby steps. Here's what I changed today.
- Diet
- I ate a small serving of strawberries and an apple instead of salty or sugary snacks. I did have some deli turkey as snacks also.
- I drank about eight cups of water.
- I had less than two full cans of Mountain Dew. I love Mountain Dew. During law school and various military moves, I drank as much as a two liter per day. Since my youngest child was born and sleep deprivation began all over again, I have bought and ingested a lot of that addictive elixir. I'm working on changing that.
- Exercise
- I walked 2,437 steps. Given my fitness watch (I have a Garmin) wasn't charged and I didn't put it on until the early evening, I'll consider that okay for the day.
- I did 100 squats. I used to lift weights and maxed my legs out at 385 pounds once upon a time. Thankfully, the squats today were mostly like riding a bike. I was just a little shaky afterward.
- I started doing one minute on the elliptical every time I went downstairs to work on the laundry, but that was just twice. I haven't done any consistent workouts on the elliptical since I was in law school a decade ago, and I have to work up to a 20-minute workout again.
- I found out that I'm SO out of shape! I started with this exercise video, but had to stop four times because I was so out of breath (but I did finish it):
So that was yesterday. I won't step on a scale or take another selfie for a week. But I weighed 219 and looked like this as of this morning.
I'll publish daily journals, but I won't weigh in or take selfies more than once a week. I tend to get discouraged if I weigh in and see the scale go up, even if it's just creeping up after a bad day.
I'm posting this journey here to keep myself accountable and possibly to inspire someone else. If you're finding any benefit from this post or my future ones, please leave me a comment and let me know.
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